Categories
B-School / Consulting Clubs

Art of the Ask: How to Get a Standout MBA Recommendation

In a previous article, I discussed how MBA recommendation letters are a crucial component of the overall application. This process can often feel daunting, particularly when you’re asking someone to support you while you’re preparing to leave their company. What is required of MBA recommendation letters Typically, recommenders will need to respond to several questions […]

Categories
B-School / Consulting Clubs

GMAT Prep: Why Shortcuts Fall Short and Dedication Delivers

As mentioned in a previous article, most business schools require either a GMAT or GRE score for their MBA programs. These test scores typically account for about 20% of the overall application. Many students have shared stories of peers who studied for just two weeks and achieved high scores. However, based on my own experience […]

Categories
B-School / Consulting Clubs

Consultants – A dime a dozen for MBA Applications

Standing out in an MBA application involves a strategic approach to showcasing your unique qualities and experiences. With thousands of management consultants applying to top MBA programs each year, consulting is one of the most overrepresented candidate pools, alongside finance. Entering class statistics at US M7 schools (2025) US M7 school Total class size (2025) […]

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Interviews

Case Interviews: How to Stand Out in the Crowd

Consulting case interviews are a critical part of the hiring process for many top consulting firms. They are designed to assess a candidate’s problem-solving abilities, analytical skills, and ability to think on their feet. Preparing for these interviews can be daunting, but with the right strategies and mindset, you can overcome this challenging hurdle. In […]

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Consulting Industry

Career Launchpad: The value of joining an MBB Firm

During my undergraduate education, I was always mesmerized by the sessions run by the MBB consulting firms: McKinsey, BCG, and Bain. Having worked at a boutique consulting firm and a Big 4 firm, I always sensed that the MBB experience was distinct. My friends at MBB firms have unique opportunities, such as travelling the world […]

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B-School / Consulting Clubs

Navigating Business School: A Guide for Incoming Students

Starting university as a business student is an exciting and transformative experience. You’re about to embark on a journey that will shape your future career, and the opportunities available to you are vast. From academics to extracurriculars, internships, and even your own entrepreneurial ventures, the possibilities seem endless. However, with so much on your plate, […]

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B-School / Consulting Clubs

MBA Sweet Spot: How to Dream Big and Apply Smart

The MBA journey is a deeply reflective process, centered around understanding your goals and aspirations. Being honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses is crucial in determining how you measure up and which schools are the best fit for you. While targeting M7 schools is an admirable goal, it’s important to diversify your application […]

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B-School / Consulting Clubs

MBA Countdown: Timing for Your MBA Application Package

After years of planning for your MBA, you will eventually reach the stage that involves completing the MBA application package. This includes compiling your background information, reflecting on your goals and aspirations, writing essays, and securing recommenders. Below I’ve outlined key tasks to consider starting 12 months before application deadlines. 9-12 months before application deadline […]

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B-School / Consulting Clubs

The MBA Journey: Forging a Path That Sets You Apart

I was always inspired by students who graduated from top MBA programs. Through several internships and networking opportunities, I met many individuals from these programs who thoroughly enjoyed their experiences. As a result, I knew that I wanted to pursue an MBA after completing my undergraduate business degree in 2018. Over the past few months, […]

Categories
Career Advice

Beyond the Numbers: The Strategic Value of Data Scientists

In today’s data-driven world, the role of a data scientist has become increasingly crucial across various industries. From technology and finance to healthcare and marketing, data scientists are at the forefront of extracting meaningful insights from vast amounts of data. This article explores what data scientists do, the impact they have, and how you can […]

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Career Advice

Flip the Script: Six Steps to Reinvent Your Career

Embarking on a career switch can be both exhilarating and daunting. Whether you’re seeking new challenges, pursuing a long-held passion, or responding to changes in your industry, transitioning to a new career path requires strategic decision-making. In this short article, we’ll explore the six (6) essential steps that you can follow to help you navigate […]

Categories
Consulting Industry

In the Fast Lane: A day in the life of an MBB consultant

Business students and prospective consulting candidates often ask me what life is like as an MBB consultant. The answer can vary significantly depending on the client, project, and team. However, I wanted to provide a glimpse into a typical day during a longer-term client project to give you a better understanding of what your daily […]

Categories
Consulting Industry

Incentives vs Integrity: The BCG Bribery Scandal

Between 2011 and 2017, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which is one of the world’s leading management consulting firms, engaged in high level bribery in Angola. BCG has admitted to paying millions in bribes to secure contracts with the Angolan Ministry of Economy and the National Bank of Angola. The misconduct orchestrated by employees in BCG’s Lisbon […]

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B-School / Consulting Clubs

From MBB to MBA: Why an MBA Still Matters

I have often heard from leaders at MBB firms that management consulting is a close substitute for an MBA program. From my experience at one of the MBB firms and now as an MBA candidate, I want to share the similarities that I have found between being an MBB consultant and doing an MBA, whether […]

Categories
B-School / Consulting Clubs

MBA Admissions Consultants – A must have?

In my last series of publications, I shared my opinions on the MBA and the key elements of an MBA application package. However, when it comes to actually applying to schools, it can often be a daunting task. I found that reading articles and watching YouTube videos only provided high-level, general advice, not something specific […]

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B-School / Consulting Clubs

Global MBA Rankings – What do they really mean?

MBA rankings are a significant factor for many prospective students when choosing a business school. However, understanding the methodology behind these rankings, their significance, and how to interpret them is crucial for making an informed decision. In this article, we will delve into global MBA rankings and provide guidance on how to use or not […]

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Career Advice

Dare to Ask: The Art of Negotiating a Job Offer

Negotiating a job offer can be a daunting task, but it is a crucial skill to master in today’s competitive job market. Whether you’re entering the workforce for the first time or looking to advance your career, negotiating effectively can make a significant difference to your salary, benefits, and overall job satisfaction. In this article, […]

Categories
B-School / Consulting Clubs

8 Key Elements of Your MBA Application Package

In the previous article, I provided a high-level overview of the MBA landscape. Now, I will delve deeper into each component of the MBA application package. The key application components, along with their estimated importance weights, include: Standardized tests (GMAT or GRE) – 20% Academic transcripts – 18% Resume – 15% Letters of recommendation – […]

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B-School / Consulting Clubs

The MBA: Navigating Your Professional Education

If you are a business student or working professional, terms such as “MBA”, “M7” and “GMAT” may be familiar. For me, I never seriously considered pursuing an MBA until my final year of undergraduate studies. Now as an experienced professional, I want to share the potential significance of pursuing an MBA and offer guidance on […]

Categories
Career Advice Startups

Startup Experience: A Must for Every Young Professional

In my journey from university to the professional world, I, like many of my peers, initially gravitated towards the allure of prestigious roles in consulting or finance. These fields promise versatility, growth opportunities, and the potential for exciting career transitions. However, what my undergraduate business program failed to emphasize was the often-overlooked world of startups—particularly small businesses that operate outside […]

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Consulting Industry

David and Goliath: How Boutique Firms Triumph

In recent years, the consulting industry has witnessed a significant shift, with boutique consulting firms emerging as competition against their larger counterparts. This trend towards specialization and personal service is reshaping the landscape, offering clients a unique blend of niche expertise, agility, competitive pricing, and strong relationships that big-name consultancies struggle to match. In this […]

Categories
B-School / Consulting Clubs

Unlocking the GRE: Your Gateway to Graduate Success

The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is a standardized test widely used for admissions into various graduate and business programs across the globe. Understanding what the GRE is, how it aids in unlocking master’s programs, particularly MBAs, and effective preparation strategies is crucial for prospective graduate students. In this article, we’ll delve into the key aspects […]

Categories
Skills, Tips, and Tactics

Beyond Bullet Points: A Guide to Structured Consulting Decks

In the fast-paced world of management consulting, effective communication is key. As consultants strive to convey complex ideas, strategies, and recommendations, a well-crafted slide deck is an invaluable tool. In this article, we will explore a simple structure that you could follow to break down the layout of a consulting slide deck. 1. The Problem […]

Categories
Interviews

The Consulting Interview: Skills That’ll Set You Apart

Securing a consulting position involves passing through a rigorous process that goes far beyond a mere evaluation of your technical expertise. Consulting firms are keen to identify candidates who not only possess the required knowledge, but also exhibit specific skills that are crucial for success in the industry. In this article, we’ll delve into the […]

Categories
B-School / Consulting Clubs

GMAT: A Strategic Guide to Effective Preparation

The GMAT is a necessary hurdle that individuals who aspire to pursue an MBA or a graduate degree in finance need to overcome in order to gain admission to a top school. The GMAT assesses a wide range of skills, from analytical writing to quantitative and verbal reasoning. Success on the GMAT requires a well-thought-out […]

Categories
Skills, Tips, and Tactics

Managing Meetings: How to Drive Productivity and Success

Meetings can either be a powerful catalyst for collaboration and decision-making or a drain on time and productivity. Whether you are in consulting, strategy, operations, or product management, the ability to manage meetings effectively is a crucial skill that can significantly impact the success of your endeavors. In this short article, we will explore strategies […]

Categories
Consulting Industry

5 Strategies for Success in Product Management

In the competitive, fast-paced, and ever-evolving landscape of technology and business, the role of a product manager is pivotal. A great product manager is not just a project coordinator, they are visionaries, strategists, and leaders. In this short article, we will delve into five key strategies that can help you become a great product manager. […]

Categories
B-School / Consulting Clubs

How to Win Your Consulting Case Competition

Are you signed up for a case competition, ready to showcase your skills and get a quick resume-building experience? Maybe you’ve been a part of a team that for some reason failed to even make the first cut because of inexperience or a lack of cohesion. Or maybe this is your first exposure to case […]

Categories
Consulting Industry

Types of Consultants – Expert Witness and Legal Consulting

If your job description involves providing a service to a client utilizing your skill set and time, then you are probably a consultant of some kind. If you have read some of the blogs on this website, you have probably come across many that describe life and work as a management or business consultant. These […]

Categories
Skills, Tips, and Tactics

Honing and Highlighting the Consulting Skillset

In the previous article, we introduced the key skills an effective consultant is expected to possess — but now what? As an aspiring consultant, simply knowing which skills to show on your CV is not enough; you’ll also need to know how to hone and highlight these skills, which is what we’ll be covering in […]

Categories
Skills, Tips, and Tactics

What Skills Do Firms Want in Aspiring Consultants?

The role of a consultant is dynamic and complex, requiring a unique blend of skills that go beyond pure technical proficiency. In this 2-part article, I will outline the 5 key skills of an effective consultant, then discuss how to hone and highlight these skills. Being a consultant is no easy feat, and almost every […]

Categories
Skills, Tips, and Tactics

Weight Management: Tips for Busy Consultants

Being a management consultant is a rewarding yet challenging profession. Business consultancy can involve helping to increase a business’s capabilities, develop a new product, or enter a new market. While you may be a highly proficient management consultant, the pressures of the job can make it challenging to take consistently good care of yourself. According […]

Categories
Skills, Tips, and Tactics

Learning to Lead: Communicating with Clients and Teams

In consulting, one of the most coveted and highest compensated roles is that of the engagement manager (EM). This role is crucial to the functions of a consulting firm. They often have significant influence on the success of a consulting engagement, as they often interact directly with clients and oversee engagements end-to-end. Similar roles are […]

Categories
Career Advice

Consulting: Your Gateway to Diverse Career Avenues

Choosing a career path to dedicate years of your life to is never an easy decision, and this applies whether you are an undergraduate seeking a first job fresh out of university, or someone looking to make a career switch. After all, faced with the tantalising possibility of all the possible paths you could take, […]

Categories
Lifestyle and Experiences

Headaches of Consulting (and How to Deal with Them)

As a consultant, you will typically work long hours, and during this time you might find yourself creating slide decks, analyzing massive data sets, and working within fast paced teams to solve your clients’ most challenging problems. To add to the stress, consultants are often travelling long distances for on-site visits with the client or […]

Categories
Career Advice

Beyond Consulting: Accelerating Your Professional Career

Individuals looking to fast-track their careers frequently find themselves lured by the exciting world of consulting in today’s fast-paced and constantly evolving business environment. Beyond the veneer of prestige and a lucrative 6-figure salary, however, lies a highly intense and competitive industry, leading naturally to a high turnover rate as many choose to exit this […]

Categories
Consulting Industry

Types of Consultants – Engineering and Scientific Consulting

Consulting is a wide field of work. If your job description involves providing a service to a client utilizing your skill set and time, then you are probably a consultant of some kind. If you have read some of the blogs on this website, you have probably come across many that describe life and work […]

Categories
Career Advice

Breaking Into Consulting from a Non-Traditional Background

Traditionally, consultants come from backgrounds in finance, strategy, economics, or business management. Top firms tend to recruit graduates from target business schools, and the industry is notoriously quantitative and analytical. Fortunately, there’s growing recognition that individuals from different backgrounds can offer a unique perspective coupled with logical thinking. In this blog post, we’ll explore how […]

Categories
Networking

Purpose Behind Networking as an Aspiring Consulting

A common adage within business states that “it’s not about what you know, but who you know”. While consultants do need strong analytical skills, the latter half of this saying holds true; you need to network. As any aspiring management consultant knows, networking is both an art and a science. It combines organic relationship-building as […]

Categories
Career Advice

Hidden Heroes: Business Operations in Companies of All Sizes

Business operations teams play a critical role in the success and growth of both big companies and small startups. While the specific responsibilities may vary based on the organization’s size, industry, and structure, these teams are generally responsible for various functions aimed at optimizing operations, driving efficiency, and supporting strategic goals. Let’s explore the role […]

Categories
Career Advice

Common Career Benefits: The Good, The Bad, and The Unused

Imagine this: you are three months away from graduating, and you have five job offers printed out and sitting in front of you on the table. Which one do you pick? If all else is equal, you pick the highest paying one, right? Or, do you pick the one that moves you to your dream […]

Categories
Interviews

Interview Preparation: Your Path to Success

Job interviews can be nerve-wracking, but with proper preparation, you can significantly increase your chances of success. Whether you’re a fresh graduate or an experienced professional, thorough interview preparation is key to showcasing your skills, qualifications, and personality. In this blog post, we’ll discuss five essential steps that you can take to help you prepare […]

Categories
Career Advice

Unlocking a Career as a Marketing Consultant

Marketing consultants advise companies on marketing strategies and campaigns. To do this, they should possess a keen understanding of the client’s target market and existing customer base, as well as the ability to recommend clear and actionable strategies to increase sales, expand the customer base, and develop new product offerings that will appeal to customers. […]

Categories
Career Advice

Navigating the Landscape of Career Options

Have you ever questioned whether you are on the right career path? Have you ever wondered if you would have been better off choosing to pursue a different industry, role, or company? For most people, uncertainty is uncomfortable and is to be avoided at all costs. Many people spend their entire lives changing from company […]

Categories
Career Advice

Consulting Career Pathways (Grad School to Consulting)

I previously wrote a similar article for those in consulting coming from undergrad. Now I want to highlight the outlook for those who joined consulting from grad school. Although there are extensive parallels, the grad school pool is decently different because they tend to be older (ballpark around 28 or so when they started their […]

Categories
Skills, Tips, and Tactics

Overcoming Data Collection Challenges in Consulting

During one of my recent consulting experiences, I received a piece of advice from my supervisor that saved our engagement. His advice was specific to consulting, but applicable to other areas of business too. I was assigned to a typical strategy engagement – should client X selling product Y increase sales in market Z? Our […]

Categories
Lifestyle and Experiences

Pursuing Balance in Life as a Management Consultant

Management consulting is widely known as a highly intense industry. Much is expected of consultants in terms of hours of work, quality of output, and responsiveness to client requests. The sheer intensity of the industry is a big reason why many consultants end up burning out within 2 years, opting to exit into more relaxed […]

Categories
Frameworks

Deep Dive into Hypothesis-based Problem Solving

The hypothesis-based problem solving (HBPS) approach is a method employed by consultants to develop actionable recommendations for clients using a structured, evidence-based process. As we saw in the previous article, the HBPS process has five key steps: Define the problem Define drivers and generate/refine hypotheses Determine information needs Gather and analyze the data Draw conclusions […]

Categories
Frameworks

Solving Problems with the Hypothesis-based Approach

There are generally two main approaches to solving problems in consulting, namely the: Investigative / data-based approach, and Hypothesis-based approach. The investigative approach is appropriate when the opportunity is well-defined, repetitive, and standardized, or where the solution is clear from the beginning. Progress is made by employing technical and subject matter expertise to drive towards […]

Categories
B-School / Consulting Clubs

Completing Graduate School Like a Consultant

Whether you are studying for your MBA, Ph.D., or J.D., graduate school is an incredible opportunity to learn as much as you can. You might be completing case studies, conducting experiments, and writing lengthy legal reports, all of which will prepare you for your career. As someone who recently completed graduate school and began a […]